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Organizing Santa Claus Fund campaign is a year-round affair

Whether it's trying to appeal to donors for blood or money, Barb Mrozek says her job is to go after people's heart.

Barb Mrozek, the Star's director of charities and philanthropy, oversees the logistics of the annual Santa Claus Fund from the design of the gift box to organizing volunteers to package the presents and their prompt deliveries. The work spans year round (NICHOLAS KEUNG / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

Whether it’s trying to appeal to donors for blood or money, Barb Mrozek says her job is to go after people’s heart.

“You have to go after what matters to them,” says Mrozek, who spent nine years at the Canadian Blood Services before joining the Star’s promotions team and becoming its director of charities and philanthropy in 2007. “Blood donations extend life. Donations to the Santa Claus Fund improve life.”

For Mrozek, who also oversees the paper’s Fresh Air Fund and United Way programs, running the Santa Claus Fund is a year-round affair — and it takes superwoman-like “organizing, planning and filing” skills to get the work done.

Each February, “Santa’s Chief Elf” starts meeting with merchandisers for pricing and suggestions for products to fill the age-specific, gender-neutral gift boxes that are delivered to 45,000 children around the GTA during Christmas time.

She has to decide what goes into the gift boxes for the 13 groups of recipients from ages 0 to 12 and place the orders early enough to make sure they are manufactured and shipped in time for the packaging that starts in September.

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In between, Mrozek has to find rental space for Santa’s Secret Workshop, where the small Christmas items — hats, mittens, socks, sweatshirts, toys, books, candies, toothbrush and toothpaste — are stored, packaged and marked until their deliveries in December.

Then, she has to set up the office for the elves and get in touch with community agencies to refer eligible clients to the program. The recruitment of the thousands of volunteers to pack and deliver the gift packages will come later in the fall.

From the design of each year’s gift box to finding matching hoodies and mittens, putting the right labels of a child’s name and address on each box and securing 45 local storage spots in churches or community centres to distribute the gifts in early December, Mrozek has to be meticulous.

Sometimes gift box recipients and their families live in temporary housing and keep moving; Mrozek and her assistant Cathy Johnson must go out of their way to track them down and get the gifts into the child’s hands on time.

“My brain is compartmentalized,” jokes Mrozek, who has a diploma in public relations from Humber College and learned her lessons from the grounds up. “I am on a timer. I have to know what to do and when. It is stressful.”

No matter how hard the elves work, they are bound to have small glitches. Fortunately, Mrozek says, she has the support of the Star family from the editorial that pumps out daily stories to update the campaign effort to the IT staffers who help set up phone lines and computers at the warehouse and finance department that processes donations and issues tax receipts.

“The Star covers all the administrative costs so 100 per cent of the donations goes into the gift boxes, which cost $35 each,” says Mrozek. “This is truly a company-wide effort.”

Understandably, Mrozek cannot take any vacation from September to December. She cannot take a breather even in January, when she needs to immediately send out thank-you notes to supporters of the Santa Claus Fund, compile data for her annual report, start filing away and clean the office.

Come February, the cycle repeats all over again.

“The most important aspect of my job is to get the boxes out to the kids, bring smiles to them and alleviate the parents’ concerns over how to provide for their children during the holiday,” says Mrozek.

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